He Who Owns the API

Glenn Fleishman, writing for The Economist, on Amazon’s back-and-forth with Lendle:

But on Monday morning Amazon turned off the content tap that feeds the site; it was not switched on again until Tuesday evening. The brief outage demonstrates a fundamental truth about the internet: if you don’t own the data you need to run your business, you’re dependent on the policies — and whims — of the parties that do. Jeff Croft, Lendle’s founder, says he will not make that mistake again.

Really smart take on the story.

★ Friday, 25 March 2011